"New ECW/TYW Range From Baccus" Topic

Man, those pikes look huge. 6mm pikemen with 28mm pikes. Otherwise good looking figures for such a small scale.

I don't know what you think anyone could do about that. They are as good as anyone could do with cast-on's. Even piano wire pikes would technically be out of scale.

And it's not like ANY 6mm miniatures are themselves anywhere near actual proportions.

My problem with most 6mm ranges and some of the 10mm is that body proportions are more like those of a baby than a grown man- big head, short legs. I have some old H+R ACW figures and they are much more in proportion than some of the modern ranges. Is it a technical problem that requires this distortion? Mind you, there some ranges in bigger scales that don't get it right as well.

The 6mm scale distortion is deliberate. By exaggerrating certain details it makes troops easy to "see" and identify on the table. It's the same reason you see rivets on 15mm tanks, nevermind rivets on 1/285.

In the larger scales hands are often enormously oversized; even if proportional the soldiers in many ranges are amazingly beefy and well fed. I've seen 28mm units that look like a linebacking corps in uniform.

Mind you, this is a hobby where we paint shadows on 3-dimensional objects…..

Yes, which is why I can't tell what any H&R minis are even supposed to be.

The smaller the scale, the greater the distortion necessary to make them look like what they represent. And the same goes for painting them. You have to use greater contrast. Little or no gunmetal, lots more silver.

Great looking figures. I think the pikes on these look much more realistic than the telegraph poles on the old 25mm minifigs I remember from my youth!

Mollinary

I have no problem with these at all because when I compare them with the offerings from other manufacturers two things stand out. Firstly I can actually see what they are supposed to represent quite clearly, and secondly it gives them character, which other figures sadly lack. Yes, character in 6mm, and as someone who has only become a fan of 6mm, especially Baccus figures, in the last 2 years that is something I never thought prior to my 'conversion' that I would be able to say.

And I think the pikes are only about 3x the height of the pikemen, which is about right for 16-18' pikes.

And that is gorgeous painting. I paint 6mm, but not like that.

If it were at all practical to produce thinner pike and get them to a) to cast and b) for them to stay attached to the figures without breaking then I would do so. ALL commercially cast pike and spears in any scale are far too thick for exactly the same reason, including 28mm ECW figures.

On a similar note, ALL wargames figures are caricatures, even those produced by the glitterati of the sculpting world. Even those lauded as being perfectly anatomically correct have had to had the thickness of belts and clothing exaggerated otherwise the final results would be very smooth and bland. It's something that the Ancient Greek sculptors started and we've continued ever since.

Although my original piccies of the bare castings were blown up, what has appeared on TMP are two or three times the size I had anticipated them being viewed at. The end result doesn't do them any favours as sub-consciously viewers will compare them with 20/25/28mm and find them lacking.

On the other hand, thanks for all the positive comments. These are really nice figures and they look superb when painted and massed together.

Who painted the figures in the photos Peter?

I painted the wee chaps. Most of the bases on the site were done by myself for good or for ill.